CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-98703

Low risk· EPSS 10%
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.20%

10th percentile - higher than 10% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel mac80211 (minstrel_ht) module, the debugfs file fixed_rate_idx accepts any u32 value without validation. An oversized value causes out-of-bounds indexing into minstrel_mcs_groups[] and mi->groups[].rates[], corrupting adjacent kernel memory.

Risk Assessment

The vulnerability is only reachable through a root-only debugfs mount, so it does not cross a privilege boundary, but it can still corrupt kernel memory and cause system instability.

Recommendation

Update the kernel to a version containing the fix that validates fixed_rate_idx (rejecting invalid group/rate pairs) or restrict access to debugfs.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: minstrel_ht: validate fixed rate index The fixed_rate_idx debugfs file is a plain u32 attribute, so any value can be written to it. minstrel_ht_update_stats() then copies the value into mi->max_tp_rate[] and mi->max_prob_rate, and minstrel_ht_set_rate() uses MI_RATE_GROUP()/MI_RATE_IDX() to index minstrel_mcs_groups[] (42 entries) and mi->groups[].rates[] (10 entries) with it. Writing e.g. 65535 selects group 4095 and rate index 15, far outside both arrays. The out-of-bounds entries are dereferenced and updated as struct minstrel_rate_stats (retry counts, etc.), so the invalid index corrupts adjacent kernel memory. With CONFIG_UBSAN_BOUNDS the access is reported as an array-index-out-of-bounds in minstrel_ht_set_rate(). Only a valid group/rate pair, or U32_MAX to disable fixed rate processing, can be used safely, so reject any other value when the debugfs file is written. The file is only reachable through a root-only debugfs mount, so this is not a privilege boundary. The out-of-bounds access is still a bug that must not be reachable through a writable debugfs attribute.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS